Housings of electrical plug-in connectors are commonly made in two parts, e.g., a first housing part and a second housing part. The first housing part is provided as the support for electrical components including plug contact elements such as plug-in connector contacts and plug pins. The second housing part is formed as a housing cap which can be connected to the first housing part. The second housing part closes the first housing part when connected to the first housing part. The plug-in connector housing is assembled when the second housing part is connected to the first housing part. The electrical components arranged inside the assembled housing are thereby protected from environmental influences.
The second housing part commonly has a recess through which an electrical connecting line can be passed to electrically connect with electrical components in the first housing part. A plug-in connector housing having such first and second housing parts with a connecting line is designated herein as a plug-in connector.
The interior of the plug-in connector housing should be protected from environmental influences as much as possible. A liquid-tight encapsulation is not always required; but an often less stringent requirement is that the electrical components be protected from conducting solid particles, in particular from metallic chips that could cause short circuits.
This requires that the cross-sectional area of the connecting line fill the recess of the second housing part as completely as possible or that an additional sealant such as a rubber gasket is arranged around or in the recess. Both of these measures increase cost and assembly effort of the plug-in connector.
It is common to preassemble electrical components in the first housing part to the insulated conductors of the connecting line. In order to complete the assembly of the plug-in connector, the housing cap (i.e., the second housing part) is pushed over the connecting line. The connecting line is thereby led through the recess of the second housing part. This assembly step is made difficult when the recess tightly encloses the connecting line. It is also difficult to push the second housing part over the connecting line when a rubber gasket is arranged around or in the recess.
It becomes more problematic when the connecting line has a sheathing surrounding insulated conductors of the connecting line. In this case, the sheathing at the end of the connecting line is removed in order to individually connect the insulated conductors to the electrical components of the first housing part. This presents the problem that during the assembly of the plug-in connector a bundle of individual insulated conductors is passed through the recess of the second housing part. The recess however has a smaller cross-section than the sheathed region of the connecting line. Since the width of the recess is determined by the sheathed region of the connecting line, a relatively large unfilled region remains in the recess. This results in the mounted plug-in connector not being sufficiently sealed against penetration of electrically conducting solid particles.